


Rise of the Third Lotus Prince

by Giganotus



Category: Warframe
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Burns, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Soldiers, Discovery, Family Drama, Infection, Murder, Mutation, Origin Story, Other, Revenge, Stabbing, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:35:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23163361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Giganotus/pseuds/Giganotus
Summary: Umbra's story is known. How Warframes were created is known. So what's there to discover within their fractured minds? A Tenno named Auren wonders just this and seeks answers within his Nezha Prime.
Relationships: Nezha (Warframe) & Original Tenno Character(s)
Kudos: 19





	Rise of the Third Lotus Prince

**Author's Note:**

> This is heavily headcanon based, and I mostly wrote this spur of the moment for myself. I wanted to explore what the possible origins of Nezha/Nezha Prime are, and well. Tying that story in with my male Tenno OC, Auren. Barely revised so grammar and pacing may be weird but I don't care. This isn't meant to be super high quality or anything.
> 
> Slightly rewritten, and Nezha has now been changed to Nezha Prime since he'll be coming out soon!

He had tried so, so hard. All the sneaking, the eavesdropping, the time he spent trying to aid and comfort the survivors. The time he spent trying to find the friends that had gone missing. It’s all culminated into this.

The mercenary stands, speargun pointed at the Orokin in front of him. His hands tremble, his breath ragged and by the Void is he exhausted. “Finally came to me yourself, have you?” the Orokin taunts. The man scowls, an expression unsuited for his soft, effeminate face.

“Shut up!” any normal man would’ve fallen by now. What with all the bullet holes, stab wounds, and burns. But not this man. Something has driven him to remain standing, opposing the Orokin before him.

“My what a poor state you are in. Do you really hope to challenge me like this?” The Orokin ignores the man’s demands.

“Of course not. I’m not as stupid as you think!” The man barks back. His long, dark hair is covered in sweat and blood, sticking to his face and shoulders. Despite the force driving him, the time he spent slaughtering any who dared try to stop him has taken its toll. The guards, the craftsmen, the half-built Warframes gone feral out of distress. 

The Orokin just smirks. “Your youth is so prevalent sometimes. It’s almost endearing. Makes me feel a hint of nostalgia in fact-”

“You just love to hear yourself talk, don’t you, Ballas? ” the man interrupts. “If you’re going to talk, then tell me. Tell me what you did to Freydis and Wei!”

Ballas laughs condescendingly at that. “You mean Valkyr and Wukong? Dear boy, you and I both know you’ve already discovered their fates.”

“I want to hear you say it.” the malicious growl from the man is heavy with grief. Answers. He just wants answers.

But Ballas remains silent. Staring down the young man with cruel amusement. It makes him furious. It feels like ages of silence pass in the crumbling, burning halls before the man finally breaks it.

“You. You tortured them! Mangled them to try to make them into mindless soldiers! And now you want to use the Te-”

“The Tenno. Yes. Those Void devils.”

“THEY’RE CHILDREN!” the young man’s voice cracks in fury. “THEY’RE CHILDREN! PEOPLE WITH NAMES AND YOU TREAT THEM LIKE THEY’RE TOOLS TO BE USED AND DISPOSED OF!”

“So adamant to protect them, aren’t you Lan’kai?” Ballas says the name slowly and with malice. It makes the one named shudder, but he refuses to back down. “It’s because of that dear family of yours isn’t it? Or, what remains of it, anyway.”

“It’s more than that now. You and I both know it!” Lan’kai hisses. “Have you no heart, dragon?! Consuming the vulnerable for war!” he wails, tears of pain emotional and physical streaming down his face.

“You call me a dragon, yet you delivered yourself here to me. Wounded, burned, dying. All in vain to protect the devils that dragged you from the heavens,” always a poet, Ballas is. “I know you have no intent to slay me like a noble knight. You said it yourself, you’re no idiot. So surely you know I’ve evacuated enough of my research before you decided to set my facility on fire.”

Of course Lan’kai knows. But that’s not what matters. What matters to him is that he got what he wanted. Answers, and to cause Ballas at least a bit of trouble. So he drops his speargun, allowing himself to fall to his knees. He decides to finally allow himself to succumb to his mortal injuries.

But he doesn’t succumb fast enough. Through the foggy veil of his vision he sees a blue limb extending, emitting a light to halt the bodily trauma he’s sustained. A new pain of an injection in his side, but no energy to cry out.

“Truly you are quite young. New to adulthood. So full of light and potential. You will become like the gods of old Earth…”

Shame, guilt, failure, pain. Thinking of the cousin he has among the Tenno, and the young friends he had started to make, and the fellow fighters who suffered this same fate, Lan’kai feels a burning desire to protect. To guard. Protect those who cannot protect themselves and let those who threaten them suffer upon spikes and bathed in divine flames. Until his consciousness fades.

Through all the suffering as the infection consumes him from the inside out and as he’s slowly molded into a biotech proxy, Lan’kai never forgets what he desires. To preserve what fraction of innocence and happiness may be left. Remind those without hope that maybe hope still exists. His construction is completed with a smile upon his distorted features, knowing deep inside that he will be able to tear down those who made so many suffer...

\-------------------------------

The Tenno snaps out of the haze from delving into his Warframe’s fragmented mind, gasping for breath as he regains his focus. Looking up at his Nezha Prime, suddenly it all makes sense. The lithe shape, the joyful movements, the protective abilities. That lingering sense of familiarity he felt every time he used the Warframe. Nezha Prime was Lan’kai. Nezha Prime was his cousin. 

Auren’s golden eyes water, mourning and relief rising and mingling inside him. All that time he thought his cousin had died. In a way he had, and yet in a way he hadn’t. He’d always been by Auren’s side. Overcome by these emotions, he embraces the Warframe and sobs. Muttering quiet “I’m sorry”s between tears.

And with the contact, something stirs in the Warframe. A remnant of who he once was. Slowly, as if straining against some force, Nezha Prime returns the hug. Armor covered fingers gently caress pale white hair of the Tenno in a manner so familiar and comforting. The embrace soothes both Tenno and frame. An unconventional reunion, but one both yearned for.

Together, they can protect those in the Origin System. As family once more.


End file.
